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Monday, February 27, 2012

How Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) can engage NGOs for CSR: A presentation on the larger and more challenging roles that can be taken by PSEs in NGO partnership

I was impressed that 64 participants from 22 PSEs
turned up for a well-executed workshop on CSR for PSEs organised by Bombay
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) on Feb 16, 2012. I was even more
impressed that it was not a business-as-usual day for the participants, far
from it. There was serious and furious note-taking, coupled with eager questions, and as we took a break for lunch, that did not
seem to affect the momentum of their enthusiasm – the questions and the
knowledge-seeking just continued, unabated.

To witness PSEs, the hard-core, multi-crore
giants who set up public infrastructure facilities, move from being
compliance-oriented to being triple bottom-line-oriented in spirit was
inspiring! As the GuideStar India session on “Essential Elements of Partner NGO Selection and Measuring the
Effectiveness” progressed, there were “Aha!” moments and there were takeaways. In
the first segment we talked about why PSEs need to decide their specifications
and criteria for selection before calling for applications - a
one-size-fits-all approach, inviting applications from one and all, would
backfire on the PSEs being overwhelmed with applications. It would also waste the
time of NGOs that do not meet basic specs (cause/ location) in creating
proposals. Also, PSEs need to explore the NGO data available on platforms (www.guidestarindia.org, www.Propoor.org,
www.Karmayog.org), ask around, check with
other PSEs, local corporate & Government institutions/other donors for references,
etc.

The soul of the presentation was to motivate
PSEs to move from check-signing philanthropy to get-your-feet-dirty
philanthropy. Equipped with local knowledge (social, cultural and
geographical), resources, and hard-to-come-by project management skills, PSEs,
by choice, can leverage that advantage to exert a lasting,
deep, huge and path-breaking impact on local communities. They can choose to be
fantastic enablers of community-owned projects by becoming supportive (as well
as result-oriented), strategic and systematic in their engagement with NGOs.

Additionally, one of the untapped dimensions in Donor-NGO
partnerships is the financial and other benefits of co-funding with other foundations,
grant makers and corporate entities: Co-funding
opens up the project to efficient interdisciplinary knowledge transfer,
leverages the strengths of existing robust partnerships, increases the depth
and the breadth of interventions in a community, and leads to a more holistic,
sustainable and high-quality intervention- in the truest sense, multiple donors
come together, collaborate and complete
each other, rather than compete against each other.

For instance, in a post-disaster scenario, if
one donor, limited by funding criteria could only construct houses, s/he could
collaborate with another donor who could fund sanitation, and another for kitchen
gardens etc. to result in a well-rounded intervention for the beneficiaries,
because, an incomplete remedy - house construction without sanitation - can run
the risk of spawning more diseases i.e. houses turning into slums due to
improper waste management.

Given the multi crore (1 crore = 10 million)
annual budgets that PSEs are mandatorily required to spend on CSR, the key
concern is of finding NGOs that can effectively implement programmes of scale.
I impressed upon the PSE participants to also invest in NGO capacity building
programmes and to fund the creation of infrastructure in the voluntary sector
to enable effective CSR. This would mean supporting aggregators that address
areas such as: mapping the sector, doing accreditations, building NGO
capacities in strategy, governance, financial management and programme
management.

During the session, we also discussed about PSEs
sharing their skills in procurement and project management to co create and co
implement projects with NGOs by weaving in employee volunteering opportunities
into projects. PSEs can also play a critical role in disaster preparedness and
disaster response given the strength of their infrastructure, logistics and
reach.

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), which
hosts the National CSR Hub, is the focal point for facilitating NGO Partner
Selection and it is creating a pool of Empanelled NGOs. I urge TISS to build on
existing data available with various aggregators and intermediaries such as
GuideStar India, GiveIndia, Credibility Alliance, Propoor & Karmayog so
that they can create a pool of NGOs quickly and it would save NGOs the trouble
of resubmitting information that is already available and vetted by other
organisations.

In closing, it was a motivating endeavour by the
BCCI and the palpable enthusiasm of the PSEs suggest strongly that they are
listening and gearing up for NGO partnerships, but the question is, “How many
NGOs are ready to take on the road-builders to be partners in building lives?”

Pushpa Aman Singh, CEO GuideStar India was invited by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry to do a session for CSR managers of Public Sector Enterprises on Feb 16, 2012 in Mumbai.

1 comment:

In months and years to come, Civil Societies, in particular good NGOs have a key role to play in discharging CSR and other related initiatives and deliveries. The need of the hour is to bring transparency amongst the NGOs and to rise above the occasion to mark their presence like a business partner. With involvement of professionals and sincere person devoted for the cause of the poor, things would change and shape a platform , where NGOs can display their mettles in a pragmatic manner. Thanks, Pramod Kr Sinha, Management & Social Development Professional